The Genius is the Most Indebted

Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson is a book from which I read. There's a place for this book in the book shelf, but the writing is so pleasing I keep it close. To read a book for me means to read from one of several books until one by one they're finished or eliminated. Sort of like flicking channels. (Some people say flipping, switching, or changing channels. I say flicking.)

I like books. If I want to know how a book ends, there's no waiting. There was a day when I couldn't give enough attention to reading a page of a book. Those days were high school, college, and many years after. Paxil changed my reading skills in 1998.
Where was that magic in 1974? Maybe at 50 I'll go back to school.

I wonder if instead of one course exploring the books of great authors, we had a school system based on the thoughts written by great thinkers, would our culture benefit? Are we better off if we become a nation of computer programmers, scientists, mathematicians, geologists, or philosophers? Are we better to know what science says about the universe or are there no new thoughts of value. Do we need to know if global warming is real or is it enough to live by giving more than taking, leave something for the future, nothing lasts forever? We own nothing and are loaned everything.

Emerson in writing about Shakespeare says no great men are original. When we think about the impressive creations/inventions or our time, we connect them to perceived great men or women. Genius is a crown we give to football coaches who devise "new" ways to move a football down a field at least 10 yards at a time in no more than 4 tries. We also have a genius who gave us rockets to send satellite robots into space to better take advantage of the laws of physics so we can have computerized voice give us directions to the grocery store from our home, or deliver a live warhead with pinpoint accuracy to an unsuspecting bad guy.

Emerson wrote, The greatest genius is the most indebted man. An indebted man who knows he owes acknowledgements, is humble. The wisdom of Emerson's observation is worth acquiring today.